A separated Dublin man (45) who is accused of raping his daughter during weekend access visits has gone on trial at the Central Criminal Court. In court, the now 25year-old woman accused her father of breathing heavily while she was giving evidence. "He's breathing heavily when I'm talking; it's frightening," she told the jury.
Mr Justice Paul Carney said he could not hear the accused breathing. He later warned the accused to stop shaking his head in disagreement while his daughter was giving evidence.
Mr Gerard Clarke SC, prosecuting, said the alleged offences began when the complainant was aged seven and continued until she was 13, with one further sexual assault 10 years later, in 1998.
When she was 13, she threatened her father she was going to tell somebody and he stopped, apart from the final alleged incident which led to the charges. The accused man has denied 13 charges of rape, indecent assault and sexual assault, said to have occurred at several west Dublin locations between 1982 and 1998.
Cross-examined by Mr Anthony Sammon SC, defending, she denied suggestions that her father had undressed her because she was drunk. She also denied inventing or imagining the allegations of sexual abuse.